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Biz travelers returning but packing frugally
Biz travel is back but with travel costs almost costing as much as during the recession, companies are looking for new ways to control their spending.
About a fifth of business travelers operate under mandated travel programs. Those require them to use the airlines, hotels and car rental companies their employer has chosen. So says the Global Business Travel Association Foundation’s Global Business Traveler Study 2012, sponsored by Concur.
Roughly a third work for a company that has no preferred travel vendors, the study found. The rest, almost half of business travelers, fall in between. That is, their employer encourages them to use specific airlines, hotels and car rental companies, but does not always require it.
"But beyond trying to keep more direct control over travel costs, companies are turning to other methods to hold down their travel bills," says the New York Times.
These include the use of videoconferencing equipment and reserving rooms at less expensive hotels. Efforts also are to reduce the number of employees sent to meetings.
Even per diems, which had disappeared almost a decade ago, have come back, said Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University.
Travel prices peaked in 2007, then fell the next two years, says the Times. They began to rise again in 2010, Hanson said. Costs are expected to continue to increase this year by about 4 to 6%.
But even with higher costs, business travel has come back.
"The market actually recovered from what it lost in 2009 by the end of 2011, almost," said Lorraine Sileo, vice president of research PhoCusWright.
By David Wilkening
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